81926 Partnering for Gender Equality World Bank Annual Gender Trust Funds Report July 2012 – June 2013 Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network Photo: Sofie Tesson / Taimani Films / World Bank The Gender Trust Funds Program comprises all trust funds managed by the Gender and Development Department in the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network. This report provides an update on progress and achievements of activities financed by these trust funds for the period July 2012 – June 2013. The report does not cover gender-specific and multipurpose trust funds managed by other World Bank Group departments and units. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 2 CONTENTS The Role of Trust Funds in Advancing Gender Equality at the World Bank 5 Toward Gender Equality Results 10 Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality 13 Adolescent Girls Initiative 26 Women’s Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises 36 3 ABBREVIATIONS AFR Africa M&E Monitoring and evaluation AGI Adolescent Girls Initiative MDTF Multidonor trust fund CAS Country Assistance Strategy MIF Multilateral Investment Fund (Inter- CSO Civil society organization American Development Bank) EAP East Asia and Pacific MNA Middle East and North Africa ECA Europe and Central Asia NGO Nongovernmental organization EPAG Economic Empowerment of Adolescent PREM Poverty Reduction and Economic Girls and Young Women (Liberia) Management (Network) EVENT Enhanced Vocational Education and PRMGE Gender and Development Group Training RGAP Regional Gender Action Plan FAO Food and Agriculture Organization (of the SAR South Asia Region United Nations) SDTF Single donor trust fund GAD Gender and Development SME Small and medium enterprises GAP Gender Action Plan TVET Technical and Vocational Education and GBV Gender-based violence Training GENFUND Trust Fund for Gender Mainstreaming UFGE Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality GENTF Gender Trust Funds USAID United States Agency for International LCR Latin America and the Caribbean Development ICT Information and communication WBG World Bank Group technology WDR World Development Report IDA International Development Association WLSME Women’s Leadership in Small and Medium IEG Independent Evaluation Group Enterprises IFC International Finance Corporation Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 4 THE ROLE OF TRUST FUNDS IN ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY AT THE WORLD BANK Photo: Charlotte Kesl / World Bank The World Bank Group (WBG) promotes gender equality in developing countries through analysis, policy dialogue, knowledge, lending, and grants. Over the past several years, the WBG has ramped up its efforts to mainstream gender throughout its work. This has been reflected in high-level management support of the gender equality agenda, inclusion of gender equality as a corporate area of focus, and achievement of gender mainstreaming targets as part of the Corporate Scorecard and International Development Association (IDA) Results Measurement System. Ongoing efforts seek to deepen the treatment of gender equality in Bank operations and on implementation and results. This work will be monitored with new gender commitments and enhancements that are expected to accompany the IDA17 replenishment. The World Bank’s Gender Trust Fund (GENTF) Program has been crucial in cultivating these efforts and continues to provide criticalsupplemental resources to support strategic and innovative work on gender equality. The trust funds managed under this program have emerged in response to various global and institutional needs and opportunities. The GENTF Program has been a pathbreaker for the Bank’s trust fund reform. Since 2012, the numb er of trust funds managed under this program has been reduced from six to three. The program is now moving toward convergence in terms of its administration, reporting, and measurement of results with the recent establishment of the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE). The resources managed under the GENTF Program enable staff to make critical investments in gender-relevant data and new evidence, including the piloting of innovative approaches, and engagement in frontier areas where current knowledge is scarce. Ultimately, these activities help the Bank respond with effective advice and development solutions at the country level. Through broad dissemination of data, research, and lessons learned, these activities also expand to the global knowledge base on gender equality. 1 As of June 2013, the GENTF Program totaled $63.1 million and comprised four main funds (table 1). 1 All dollars in this report refer to U.S. dollars. 5 Table 1. Gender Trust Funds Program Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality $39,393,344 Multi donor Multi Donor Trust Fund for the Adolescent Girls Initiative $16,990,477 Multi donor Multi Donor Trust Fund for Gender and Poverty—Economic $3,250,000 Multi donor Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (closed on June 30, 2013) Women’s Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises $3,500,000 Single donor Total $63,133,791 Bank commitments on gender guidance, network support, and an improved Web site. Gender equality is an area of corporate focus for the Regional Gender Action Plans (RGAPs) set out regional World Bank. Progress is systematically monitored priorities and include commitments to increase both through a multi-tiered results framework reflected in the number and quality of country-level gender IDA16 and the Corporate Score Card. diagnostics and to ensure their integration into CAS products and operations. RGAPs provide tailored Since fiscal year 2011, the Bank has made large strides models of support to teams, including gender clinics, in integrating gender into strategies and operations. just-in-time technical support, and resources. The Update on the Implementation of the Gender Equality Agenda at the World Bank Group, delivered to The challenge ahead is to translate these advances into the Board of Directors in 2013, shows that in fiscal year sustained results on the ground, which will require 2013, all Country Assistance Strategies (CASs) were increased investments in knowledge and data as well gender informed and around three-quarters included as sharpening the focus on gender equality during gender in the analysis, program content, and in the implementation and when reporting results. results framework. An increasing number of lending operations are integrating gender into their design, Why trust fund resources are important actions and monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and Trust funds are important catalysts for innovation and increasingly large amounts are going to gender- for expanding the frontiers of the gender equality informed operations. In fiscal year 2013, 98 percent of agenda. These resources are complementary levers for lending (or $30 billion) was gender informed. This maximizing the Bank’s work, in part by fostering cross- trend holds true across all groups of clients, IDA, institutional collaboration and knowledge sharing and International Bank for Reconstruction and through leveraging innovative partnerships. Over the Development, and Fragile and Conflict-Affected States. past couple of years, there has been a gradual shift away from the reliance on trust funds for This progress has been supported by enhanced efforts mainstreaming gender into Bank projects toward to provide country teams with the support they need investing in areas that have large externalities as well to advance gender equality on the ground. A range of as a substantial public good element. new Bank-wide initiatives are underway to help ensure staff are equipped to incorporate gender into their In the past, gender trust funds have incentivized Bank work through training and learning events, technical staff to innovate, expand into unfamiliar terrain, and gain important experience through “learning by doing.” The Trust Fund for Gender Mainstreaming evaluations to build the evidence base on how to close (GENFUND) in the World Bank and the Gender Action the gender gap in earnings, productivity, assets, Plan (GAP) Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) used property rights, and agency. The lab is currently incentive funding to gain traction in sectors where working on over 20 impact evaluations across Sub- gender mainstreaming had traditionally been weaker, Saharan Africa. like transport and mining, by encouraging staff who had never worked on gender to integrate gender into The World Bank is also breaking new ground in areas their projects. These trust funds not only helped build such as women’s voice, agency, and participation; capacity for gender mainstreaming among Bank staff, gender-based violence; equality in work; and but also contributed to the global knowledge base discrimination under the law. The GENTF Program is through investments in impact evaluations, research, providing the space with complementary funds to and datathatare publically available. allow the Bank to push these frontiers. For example, new work will look at access to justice for poor women The GAP MDTF, for example, placed an important in Serbia, the implications that long-term care needs emphasis on increasing the availability and use of have on female labor force participation in China, and gender-relevant data and statistics. Broadly, activities using women’s agency as a tool to overcome violent focused on three key areas: (1) increasing the circumstances in Colombia. availability and use of gender indicators; (2) identifying and filling data gaps, developing new indicators, and Toward greater harmonization and strategic focus gender-informing WBG and other surveys; and (3) With the recent establishment of the UFGE, the GENTF building international and national capacity to obtain Program is seeking convergence in terms of its and use sex-disaggregated data. These activities administration, reporting, and results measurement. produced 43 original data sets and multiple tools for The UFGE is firmly anchored in the World Bank Group’s gender analysis, including ADePT Gender, gender- gender mainstreaming strategy and will become the relevant indicators in the Enterprise Surveys, an designated vehicle for channeling trust fund resources expanded Gender Data Portal, key gender employment toward gender equality as the other trust funds in the indicators, and the Little Data Book on Gender, among GENTF Program are phased out. others. Over the last two years, the number of trust funds Gender equality remains a complex and long-term managed under the GENTF Program was reduced from challenge that requires continued investments to six to three. In fiscal year 2013, two trust funds were expand women and girl’s endowments and closed: the GENFUND and the MDTF for Gender and opportunities along with measures to tackle deep- Poverty—Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls. seated structural inequalities and adverse norms and The GAP MDTF closed at the end of fiscal year 2012. discrimination. There is still much we don’t know, The harmonization of gender-related trust fund particularly in frontier areas, as well as “what works.” resources under the UFGE will help reduce The current GENTF Program is helping us better fragmentation created by having funds dispersed understand which interventions work by supporting across several different funding instruments with impact evaluations through Women’s Leadership in differing reporting methods. Harmonization will help Small and Medium Enterprises (WSLME single donor ensure that trust-funded activities are aligned with the trust fund [SDTF]) and smoothing the transition of Bank’s strategy and regional needs and priorities. adolescent girls and young women into productive Knowledge management efforts will be strengthened employment (Adolescent Girls Initiative [AGI] MDTF). at the aggregate level so that lessons learned and Many exciting areas are also being explored in the policy messages can be shared across regions and with regions with funding from the UFGE. In Africa, the our partners. Finally, consolidating resources under the Gender Innovation Lab is conducting rigorous impact UFGE helps keep the focus on gender equality by 7 leveraging resources and strengthening efforts to make real progress toward closing persistent gender gaps. Looking ahead Going forward, the Bank will develop a renewed gender strategy in the context of the World Bank Group’s strategic goals. This will be an opportunity to further advance the gender equality agenda and to recalibrate corporate targets to ensure that gender equality remains at the core of the World Bank Group’s strategy. Work financed under the GENTF Program will complement this renewed strategy and help take the gender equality agenda to the next level. This report provides an overview of the work funded by the GENTF Program between July 2012 and June 2013. The following section highlights some early results across the program. The remainder of the report is divided by each of the program’s active trust funds, highlighting activities and providing financial details. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 8 THE GENFUND: PAVING EARLY PATHWAYS FOR GENDER MAINSTREAMING The Trust Fund for Gender Mainstreaming in the World From its initial push for gender equality in the “hard” Bank (GENFUND) was established in 2001 to encourage sectors, the GENFUND continued its “no business as innovative Bank-led work in gender and development, usual” approach by exploring new gender topics such enhance gender mainstreaming capacity in client as the construction of masculinity in Sub-Saharan countries, and foster close links with development Africa and its implications for HIV/AIDS, conflict, and partners. The GENFUND was initiated by the violence. In Papua New Guinea, for example, the Norwegian government, which has long-standing and GENFUND supported the involvement of women in strong commitment to gender. Additional generous negotiations with local governments and mining support was provided by the Dutch government during companies to mitigate negative effects of mining and 2003–2006. improve community welfare. Regional guidelines to integrate gender into extractive industries were The GENFUND’s flexible approach was influential in developed and a $1 million component for Women in shaping the World Bank’s gender equality agenda. Mining was included in an $18 million mining technical Above all, it was a tool for encouraging out-of-the-box assistance loan. In Uganda, the GENFUND supported thinking. Over the years, the GENFUND supported local scholarships that allowed women and girls to use innovative gender activities that otherwise would not their schools’ Internet facilities during and after school, have taken place. The 2010 Independent Evaluation and over 150 women received training. Group (IEG) report, Gender and Development: An Evaluation of World Bank Support 2002–2008, The work of the GENFUND was captured in the 2011 suggested that the higher levels of gender World Development Report on Conflict, Security, and mainstreaming in 2002–2003 could be attributed to Development and the 2012 World Development Report the catalytic nature of the GENFUND. on Gender Equality and Development. The former drew on a GENFUND research program on gender- The GENFUND was marked by three phases, differentiated impacts of violent conflict, with country throughout which a particular but not exclusive focus studies from Burundi, Colombia, Nepal, Rwanda, on Africa was maintained. Initially (2001–2005), Tajikistan, and Timor Leste exploring areas of GENFUND support focused on demand-driven education, labor, and health. Much of this was mainstreaming of existing Bank work. Then, with the presented at a workshop in Washington, DC, and an adoption of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) in 2006, the international conference held in Oslo in 2010. A 2012 GENFUND entered its second phase by bolstering the paper, “Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality,” was GAP agenda during its start-up phase. When the GAP published in the World Bank Research Observer and was fully established, the GENFUND transitioned into provided an overview of this work. The paper its third and final phase, taking on a complementary emphasized the need to look beyond the more role by seeking to advance areas beyond women’s researched areas of sexual and gender-based violence economic empowerment, areas not addressed by the and cover intergenerational poverty, employment, and GAP, such as education, health, law and governance, political participation. gender-based violence, and women in postconflict situations. TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY RESULTS Photo: Arne Hoel / World Bank Reporting on results Activities financed under the GENTF Program contribute to results in the following three areas:  better gender-informed policy making at the country level,  improved design of operations and programs, and  heightened awareness and increased demand for gender equality interventions. With the exception of the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI), most activities under the current GENTF Program were initiated in the last fiscal year. It is therefore early to report results. The following section highlights how some of the ongoing and planned activities are expected to contribute to results. Better gender-informed policy making at the country level The GENTF Program aims to strengthen policy making by increasing the availability and use of gender-relevant data and evidence. It supports efforts to improve gender-informed policy making at the country level by investing in areas where inequality gaps persist and in new areas where evidence is weak. The following activities were recently launched and are expected to increase the availability of gender-relevant data and evidence at the country and regional level:  Partnering with the Listening to Africa project to collect gender-disaggregated panel data on standard household information as well as focused data sets on key aspects of gender differences.  A new Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Poverty and Gender module, which provides access to standardized gender-relevant data extracted from the household surveys used for regional poverty monitoring. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 10  In the Latin America and Caribbean Region, Building shown high levels of motivation and satisfaction Women’s Agency as a Tool to Overcoming Violent among the beneficiaries. The pilot has enabled new Circumstances will provide empirical and dialogue and partnerships among ministries that could operational evidence on the extent to which socio- form the basis of a larger engagement on technical emotional coaching, job training, and small firm training and entrepreneurship in Haiti, which are start-up support can increase agency and improve priorities of the government and key components to development outcomes of women living in violent boost innovation, competitiveness, and growth in the situations. country. These data and evidence can provide an important Improved design of operations and programs basis to help inform policy decisions. Below are some examples of how recent work has contributed to While the GENTF Program does not directly fund evidence-based policy dialogue through addressing gender-mainstreaming in Bank projects, the issues such as excess female mortality and gender gaps knowledge and evidence produced through its in economic opportunities. activities will lead to better-designed operations with a sharper focus on gender-informed implementation and Promising policy options to improve reproductive results. Activities are underway that aim to strengthen health and expand successful approaches and translate new Despite some progress in lowering maternal mortality evidence into results on the ground—examples are rates, pregnancy and the consequences of childbirth highlighted below. remain the leading causes of death and disability among women of reproductive age in developing Expanding approaches help young women transition countries today. A paper entitled “Closing the Deadly to productive employment Gap between What We Know and What We Do” was In Nepal, the AGI implementation team is providing prepared for and presented at the Women Deliver technical support to share “girl–friendly” Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia—the largest implementation lessons with government global event of the decade to focus on the health and implementers. Support is also being provided to empowerment of girls and women. The paper argues develop M&E tools and mechanisms to assess project that “investments in reproductive health are a major progress for thenationwide Enhanced Vocational 2 missed opportunity for development.” We know in Education and Training (EVENT) Project. This will many instances what works, but fail in translating this provide the government of Nepal with information on into practice. The paper is a useful tool for policy the accessibility of such programs for young women dialogue in that it reviews evidence and presents and on the immediate training and longer-term labor promising policy options that can be used to initiate market outcomes. more virtuous cycles in reproductive health outcomes. Adapting evidence on entrepreneurship training to Fostering dialogue on “girl-friendly” reach more women employment programs A recent evaluation of a new entrepreneurship track in The Haiti Adolescent Girls Initiative pilot is working Tunisian universities—giving students the opportunity with vulnerable young women, who are largely under- to graduate with a business plan rather than a represented in formal labor markets, to facilitate a traditional thesis—shows that the combination of school-to-work transition and improve their business training and personalized coaching has been employment and earnings potential. In addition to 2 EVENT is a $50 million IDA project that will benefit achieving a high completion rate (95 percent) for the approximately 75,000 Nepali youth and includes incentive first cohort of 500 girls, preliminary feedback from the schemes to specifically target poor women between the ages project’s M&E system and qualitative evaluation has of 16–35 and disadvantaged youth. 11 effective in increasing the rate of self-employment online resource provides practical guidance and among graduates. Yet, this has proven to be relatively recommendations and serves as a clearinghouse for more effective for men than women. Identified emerging evidence on women entrepreneurs. constraints include lack of access to credit and limited experience as well as opportunities. The Women’s Balkan leaders join forces on gender-inclusive land Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (WLSME) reforms Single Donor Trust Fund (SDTF) is supporting additional On June 16, 2013, 30 land tenure, social, and gender entrepreneurship and business development services, specialists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as incubation and access to credit, to improve the Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia effectiveness of the entrepreneurship track for participated in a week-long leadership workshop held women. in Montenegro. The objective was to help local land reform teams confront the challenge of how to make Heightened awareness and demand for gender their projects and reforms equally beneficial to men equality interventions and women. The workshop integrated technical content from a gender perspective with leadership The GENTF Program supports efforts to heighten skills–building sessions on addressing adaptive awareness and increase demand for gender equality challenges, joint problem solving, coalition building, interventions through activities that promote dialogue and the use of a results-based approach. The goal was and collaboration across the development community for participants to become catalysts for change by and lead to increased awareness and capacity among creating and sustaining coalitions and moving gender- client counterparts, national civil society organizations informed land programs forward. A one-year program (CSOs), research institutions, and the private sector. will track progress toward goals developed at the end These efforts are directed at sharing knowledge and of the workshop. developing the capacity of both development practitioners and policymakers. Recent activities are A platform for regional dialogue highlighted in the following sections. Adim Adim Anadolu (Anatolia step by step) was recently established by the Turkish Ministry of Family Researchers and practitioners discuss how to grow and Social Planning, the Turkish Industry and Business women-run businesses Association (TUSIAD), and the World Bank to provide a Women entrepreneurs make a significant contribution platform for dialogue and to raise awareness of ways to economic growth and poverty reduction around the to increase women’s access to economic opportunities world, but results on supporting women entrepreneurs across Turkey. These dialogues aim to increase have been mixed. A conference in Washington, DC, on information and awareness for women in Turkey on April 23, 2013, brought together researchers and the economic opportunities available to them, as well practitioners from the World Bank, the International as public programs available at the local level to Finance Corporation (IFC), and the U.S. Agency for support them. Events have been held in five regions International Development (USAID) to take stock of around the country and are preceded by discussions what we know and to discuss innovative interventions with local institutions to ensure ownership and that to grow women-run businesses. Participants also the event is tailored to the specific needs and interests engaged in an interesting discussion on programs and of the region. The dialogues include discussions among interventions that failed, and the reasons behind their stakeholders, including central and local governments, failure. The conference also saw the formal launch of a businesses, female entrepreneurs, women’s groups, new Female Entrepreneurship Resource Point. This and academia. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 12 UMBRELLA FACILITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY Photo: Arne Hoel / World Bank The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE) is a multidonor facility designed to strengthen awareness, knowledge, and capacity for gender-informed policy making. This new partnership model provides a single vehicle through which trust fund resources for gender equality will be channeledand constitutes a move toward increased consolidation of fundraising, management, and reporting for gender-related trust funds. Progress and achievements in 2013 The UFGE supports the strategic directions of the  Road-testing evidence at the country level to Bank’s gender mainstreaming strategy and Regional strengthen and expand successful approaches and Gender Action Plans (RGAPs) by investing in priority generate operationally relevant lessons on how to areas critical to closing the gaps between what we effectively translate new evidence into results on the know and what we do. It represents a concerted effort ground; and to expand our understanding of frontier issues such as  Leveraging partnerships to help advance gender women’s voice and agency. The UFGE also builds on equality through new ways of engaging the important groundwork laid in past years on development partners, research institutions, women’s economic empowerment by translating statistics bureaus, and CSOs in client countries. evidence and lessons into results on the ground — applying knowledge gained from pilots and impact These activities require significant investment, yet evaluations and bringing them to scale. This work is have large externalities as well as a substantial public broadly categorized under three pillars: good element. By firmly anchoring allocations in a public goods rationale, the UFGE seeks to maximize  Increasing availability of gender-relevant data and returns on financing for gender equality. The UFGE also evidence by serving as a catalyst for innovation and has an explicit knowledge plan that aims to foster investment in frontier issues and in areas with cross-regional and cross-sectoral dialogue and persistent gaps; knowledge exchange within the Bank and the development community more broadly. In this way, the UFGE complements the Bank’s work along 13 identified priorities laid out in the 2012 WDR and violence. It distils basic information in a standardized RGAPs, but does not directly fund gender format, linking users to available papers. Short issue mainstreaming. briefs summarizing key lessons across multiple evaluations will complement the resource point and Setting up the UFGE help translate findings into user-friendly policy tools The UFGE was established for an initial five-year period for practitioners and decision makers. (2012-2017). Much of the facility’s first year involved establishing structures and processes for administering Funding regional priorities the facility. After a Bank-wide concept review and Multiyear “block” grants are managed by each Region broad endorsement, the UFGE became one of the and provide predictable funding in support of priorities Bank’s first pilot umbrella facilities and its design is identified in RGAPs. This decentralized approach has regarded by many as a best practice. Building on received strong support from regional staff and lessons from past gender MDTFs and other successful management and aligns closely with the Bank’s overall funds in the Bank, the UFGE has a decentralized trust fund reform agenda. These block grants help structure and is driven mainly by regional priorities. To push the frontiers of regional work on gender equality date, the UFGE has received nearly $40 million in where evidence and data on what works is lacking and pledges from 11 bilateral donors. unlock new ways of engaging with partners, including at the regional and national levels. Given its public good foundation, the UFGE has adopted a strategic approach to generating, managing, In fiscal year 2013, the Gender and Development and sharing knowledge. This approach is also central to (GAD) Board—the UFGE’s main decision body— the UFGE’s value proposition of maximizing returns on approved regional allocations of $17.5 million. This, in gender trust fund sources by taking full advantage of the form of $2.5 million three-year block grants to the World Bank’s comparative advantage as a global, each Region, with double the amount ($5 million) to cross-sectoral institution. Each Region has identified the Africa Region. These allocations were based on knowledge management activities as a part of its block regional concept notes outlining priorities and grants, and much of the knowledge capture and expected activities over the full period, all of which dissemination will take place at this level. A central showed a strong alignment with their RGAPs. Regional knowledge management plan has been developed to Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) systematically capture and translate knowledge into directors appointed their Regions’ focal points tasked policy-relevant public goods at a global level and foster with managing the allocations. Each Region received knowledge uptake by supporting accessibility, their initial allocation of $600,000 in January 2013 (see knowledge sharing, and dissemination to development table 2 for allocation projections). practitioners, partners, and clients. Table 2. Anticipated allocations to each Region (conditional on funding) As part of this work, the UFGE is supporting the launch Fiscal year EAP, ECA, LCR, AFR of enGENDER IMPACT in the fall of 2013. It is an online MNA, SAR resource point summarizing gender–relevant impact 2013 $600,000 $600,000 evaluations supported by the World Bank Group. It aims to facilitate greater uptake of lessons from the 2014 $1,000,000 $2,000,000 evidence. Starting with the 161 evaluations identified 2015 $900,000 $2,000,000 so far, the database will be continuously expanding 2016 $400,000 and will include the many impact evaluations being funded by the UFGE. The resource point is organized Total, each Region $2,500,000 $5,000,000 around target outcomes areas such as education and Total allocation to Regions: $17.5 million skills, women’s work and earnings, and gender-based Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 14 BREAKING NEW GROUND: WOMEN’S VOICE AND AGENCY Do infrastructure investments increase women’s ability to make their own choices? Do women left behind to farm when men migrate take on increased decision making and autonomy within their families? And how do we measure agency in the first place? These and other related questions are being explored across a range of interventions and surveys funded by the UFGE. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a survey of transport project stakeholders seeks to better understand whether and how infrastructure investments have paved paths for women to enter male- dominated sectors for employment and allow women to exercise more choice through increased mobility. In Central America, a study looks at “agricultural feminization” among smallholders due to male out -migration and how this affects women’s role on the farm and within the household. Who makes decisions in this context and what role do remittances play? In Bolivia, despite high female labor force participation, improved access to education and high-level political participation, illiteracy is still highest among women, adolescent fertility above the regional average, and violence against women among the highest in the region. A perception survey on exclusion and discrimination will provide a basis for policy dialogue on the significance of norms, education, and targeted interventions in combating exclusion and discrimination, particularly among indigenous and native women. The study is also exploring innovative ways of measuring agency. THE UFGE TAKES ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE The South Asia Region, with the support of the UFGE, is putting in place a Gender-Based Violence Knowledge Hub designed to raise awareness, share knowledge, and forge partnerships with civil society, donors, government, and other stakeholders on this important issue. An interactive online platform will offer critical research in the region and information on good practices, complemented by South–South exchange programs, workshops, and communication efforts. The Knowledge Hub is part of a more strategic effort to take on gender-based violence (GBV) in the region, following the successful 2013 GBV “hackathon” in Nepal, which the Ba nk cohosted with Oxfam International. Along with the Knowledge Hub, the region seeks to explore the use of emerging information and communication technology and pilot and evaluate innovative interventions. The region will also develop standardized GBV modules for use in impact evaluations. The UFGE aims for a broad sectoral reach, and to this gender inequality across generations. The addition of end, Regions have put in place various mechanisms to UFGE funds allows the Region to strengthen the ensure involvement from each sector. In the case of provision of knowledge in these important areas. A the Latin America and Caribbean Region (LCR), for portion of the funds support the Gender Innovation instance, an intersectoral rotating subcommittee has Lab, which carries out rigorous impact evaluations to been set up to guide and monitor implementation. In measure the differential impacts of interventions on the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA), allocations men and women as well as identify effective, practical, are approved by a cross-sectoral committee to ensure and replicable solutions that address the underlying knowledge creation across a broad range of areas, and factors of gender inequality (see Taking on The a portion of the funds have been distributed evenly Underlying Causes of Gender Inequality in Africa box). across each sector. Funds will also support a partnership with the Listening to Africa (LTA) project, which collects high frequency welfare statistics using mobile phones to design Africa Region surveys that elicit the gender dimensions of economic The Region is investing in four key priority areas: work in Africa. LTA is expected to yield large amounts excess female mortality, earnings and productivity of gender-disaggregated data across 10 countries, gaps, differences in voice, and the perpetuation of 15 including Malawi and Madagascar. Additionally, the Europe and Central Asia Region Region will produce cross-country reports on trends UFGE funds are filling an important financing gap, and differences of gender impacts across core areas of allowing the Region to invest more in activities that are growth and productivity in Africa. The first study will multi-country, innovative, and push the frontiers of our focus on women who “cross-over” into traditionally knowledge. Much of the work centers on persistent male-dominated sectors, both in the agricultural and gaps in education, employment and wages, along with entrepreneurial areas. Regional conferences aiming to critical but underinvested sectors (for example, energy enhance dialogue will accompany these reports, and justice) and issues such as “missing girls” in the fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing with South Caucasus (see the It’s Not Just China box) and and among African scholars as well as government and high adult male adult mortality. The latter includes civil society stakeholders. efforts to better understand the gendered aspects of road safety in several countries. The Region is also East Asia and the Pacific Region producing a tool for generating gender-relevant data UFGE funds are enabling staff in the Region to go from its existing household and labor force surveys. beyond gender mainstreaming targets by investing in Impact evaluations will be employed to understand the knowledge and capacity needed to respond to its labor market discrimination against Roma women and clients with effective advice and innovative solutions in the role of behavioral skills. A cross-sectoral pilot aims priority areas. These areas were identified in the to improve employability of Roma adolescents, and Region’s companion report to the 2012 WDR, Gender analytical work on excess male mortality and female 3 Equality and Development : promoting gender equality care burdens will inform a regional report on aging in endowments and human development; closing (see table 5 for a full list of activities). Additionally, the gender gaps in economic opportunity; strengthening Region has so far allocated $200,000 to each of the women’s voice and influence; fostering new four networks, Finance and Private Sector opportunities; and managing emerging risks. Through Development (FPD), Human Development, PREM, and an open call for proposals, an initial $720,000 was Social Development) to ensure broad-based allocated to nine activities aiming to strengthen knowledge creation and innovation. gender-relevant data, improve gendered impacts of interventions, fill knowledge gaps, and use available evidence to scale up operations (table 5).This includes Latin America and Caribbean a pilot with the All China Women’s Federation to learn Region what challenges women face during the land According to the RGAP, women’s “agency” is the area registration process, and work in in the Mekong where the Region is lagging the most. With little subregion togenerate important lessons on ensuring evidence in this area, the Region is using UFGE funds to women benefit (and avoid associated risk) from recent invest in activities that will provide concrete investments in increased trade and integration. recommendations on how to use agency-promoting interventions to improve development outcomes (see 3 Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and the Pacific (2012) REBUILDING LIVELIHOODS FOR AT-RISK BOYS AND MEN One of the priority areas identified in the 2013–14 Thailand Country Gender Assessment is at-risk men and male youth in conflict-afflicted areas. Their high rates of unemployment place them at risk of being recruited by gangs and insurgency groups. Current government efforts are driven by security interests and sometimes fail to understand the particular profile of these men and male youth. Consequently, these efforts fall short in identifying the best solutions for rebuilding their livelihoods and their communities. The UFGE is funding a study to help identify policy solutions. These findings are expected to have broad application and will be shared with other countries facing similar challenges, such as Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 16 Breaking New Ground box). To ensure that the help answer “what works” in areas such as evidence and knowledge resulting from this work employment and entrepreneurship. This includes key remain relevant to the Bank’s clients, these activities areas such as legal reforms, access to justice, and voice have all been linked to ongoing country engagements. and agency. Nontraditional sectors such as Activities have been identified through an open call for infrastructure and urban development are a top proposals that provided an opportunity for all sectors priority. to engage.These activities include an effort to reduce vulnerability to disasters by female-headed households South Asia Region and women-run businesses through climate adaptation Persistent and pronounced gender gaps in South Asia in Saint Lucia—with important lessons for other fall under areas such as political participation, decision Eastern Caribbean countries—as well as leveraging making within the household (such as education, urban mass transport in Brazil to increase access to health, and nutrition), and labor force participation. important resources and services for women (for UFGE funds provide critical support to the Region’s example, training and education and domestic violence ongoing work by promoting innovation to help expand resources). UFGE investments over the coming years the evidence base to inform policy making and provide are expected to help bridge the gap between analytical blueprints for replication. Funded activities also help work and its operationalization. A second call for bring a more comprehensive range of stakeholders proposals will be held in 2014. into collaborative efforts to advance the gender equality agenda. Investments will go toward tackling Middle East and North Africa gender-based violence and gender inequality in labor markets, as well as providing rigorous evidence on Region what works in areas such as infrastructure. A South In this period of regional change and uncertainty, there Asia Gender Innovation Lab will identify interventions are challenges as well as opportunities for gender that address the underlying causes of female and male equality. Four key priority areas have been identified in disadvantages given a country’s context. It will test the RGAP, namely: (1) bridging remaining human gender-specific interventions in World Bank programs, development gaps, (2) removing constraints to or as stand-alone activities, in the areas of access to women’s economic participation, (3) giving women infrastructure services, voice and agency, and gender- greater voice and legal agency, and (4) strengthening based violence. The region will also explore access to data and promoting evidence-based policy opportunities emerging from the global virtual making. The UFGE will play a critical role in this effort economy and the use of information and by contributing to thematic cross-country reports that communication technologies (ICTs). A number of pilots will provide a basis for policy dialogue in these in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan will employ strategic priority areas. With the lowest female labor innovative ways to generate youth employment in force participation rates in the world, the Region will emerging niches, particularly for women. The program invest in innovative, rigorous impact evaluations to will also explore ways technology can address IT’S NOT JUST CHINA and INDIA: ECA’S MISSING GIRLS ECA can boast low infant and maternal mortality rates, but low female births in some ECA countries is often overlooked. “Missing” girls is one of the emerging topics in Opportunities for Men and Women in Emerging Europe and Central Asia, the region’s companion to the 2012 World Development Report. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia suffer from the highest sex imbalance at birth in the world after China. For every 100 live girls born, 116 boys are born (in China it is 118). This suggests strong son preference and discrimination against girls. In light of limited research, the region has initiated a study to determine the severity of the issue and to understand why these outcomes may be occurring and what policy options are available to governments to address them. 17 challenges such as reducing gender-based violence and Policy reform for improving women’s economic improving service delivery (for example, health prospects services for women; see The UFGE Takes on Gender- Turkey: The World Bank estimates that increasing the Based Violence box). These efforts build on the share of women in Turkey who work fulltime by just 6 successful 2013 Violence against Women “hackathon” percentage points could increase income by 7 percent in Nepal, where gender experts and technologists 4 and reduce poverty by 15 percent. As the government explored innovative solutions. of Turkey continues its efforts to boost female employment and entrepreneurship, the Bank is Strategic allocations providing technical support to strengthen the evidence In addition to multi-year regional allocations, UFGE base for policy design. Expecting to inform future funds are also being provided for larger, single lending, the Bank is conducting a series of studies on initiatives that are identified as a strategic priority by barriers that impact women’s participation. the Gender and Development Board. In fiscal year Background studies on paid childcare and flexible work 2013, a total of $25 million was allocated to five such arrangements are being finalized, and various studies initiatives. on female entrepreneurship are underway. Turkish research institutions are conducting this research, and The Africa Gender Innovation Lab regional dialogues and partnership platforms with the Over $16 million of these funds have been allocated to private sector will foster knowledge sharing. In June the Africa Gender Innovation Lab, which tests 2013, officials from the Ministry of Labor and the innovative, scalable interventions to address gender Ministry of Family and Social Policies participated in inequality in the productive economic sectors. study visits to Chile and Mexico that focused on the Partnering across the Bank, as well as with donors, expansion of child services and integrated systems for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and private social assistance delivery to poor and vulnerable companies, the aim is to generate effective policies households. To inform and raise awareness of that target the underlying causes (rather than the women’s economic opportunities, dialogue events symptoms) of gender inequality in Africa. Emphasis is were held in five regions. A Policy Advisory Committee, placed on the underlying causes of gender inequality comprising government officials, experts from civil that persist even in the presence of economic growth. society and representatives from the private sector, A key aspect of the approach is developing the capacity will advise the government based upon the evidence of local statistical agencies, local implementing produced through the program. partners, and researchers. The lab currently has over 20 ongoing impact evaluations of projects, largely Western Balkans: A multi-country program in the related to agriculture, financial literacy, cross-border Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, trade, business management, property rights, and the Macedonia, and Serbia) aims to promote gender empowerment of adolescent girls. In June 2013, the equality by strengthening the knowledge base and lab received an overwhelming response to a call for evidence on gender disparities in these countries. expressions of interest, with over 170 proposals Particular focus will be on market-, institution-, and submitted. A total of 12–14 projects will be funded. household-level constraints that limit women’s access Those already selected include efforts to change norms to economic opportunities. The work includes regarding childcare and women’s participation in the diagnostic studies on regional and country-specific workforce through fathers’ clubs and encouraging gender issues to strengthen the policy-making process spousal dialogue on gender relations through Village and innovations that push the knowledge frontier Savings and Loan Associations (see Taking on the through new data collection as well as piloting and Underlying Causes box). Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 18 evaluating gender-related interventions. A qualitative successful entrepreneurs or find wage employment. study on economic mobility, labor markets, and gender The UFGE is now supporting the Ministry of Gender in Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently underway and and Development in adapting and expanding the EPAG in-country consultations have been carried out with a pilot. Round three of the EPAG project incorporates variety of stakeholders to inform the activities under design innovations based on research, experience, and this program. The team will leverage social media as a lessons learned from the pilot. The four key design crowd-sourcing tool to generate ideas and feedback innovations are: (1) for the business development skills around key gender challenges in the four countries. component, incorporating start-up capital for microenterprises through a “savings match scheme”; TAKING ON THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN AFRICA We know productivity on farms in Sub-Saharan Africa can increase if women use inputs at the same rate as men, but we still do not know how best to provide women with consistent access to these inputs. We know that rigid gender norms constrain women’s ability to make decisions and control their own assets and earnings. We also know that increased control over resources and decisions within the household can enhance their ability to make decisions over other aspects of their lives, such as sexual and reproductive health, but we don’t know the best ways to change potentially harmful gender norms. With hard data and rigorous evidence, the Africa Gender Innovation Lab is linking results to smart project design by equipping policy makers and development experts with the most important of tools: knowledge. It does this by selecting interventions with potential for uncovering what works and what doesn't and rigorously evaluates these. With support from the UFGE the lab is expanding its portfolio of evaluations and adding crucial ‘know -how’ to the global knowledge pool on reducing gender inequality. For instance, in Kenya where women account for as little as five percent of registered landholders, the lab is testing ways to better strengthen women’s property rights. It looks in particular at individual, household, and community norms regarding property rights, and includes an effort to promote the writing of wills. The lab also explores the decision making processes of men and women around the adoption of new agricultural technologies, which ultimately drive the gender differentials in agricultural productivity in Africa today. In Guinea, an innovative intervention looks at the role of access to capital and financial services in the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises. This includes support in opening a bank account for savings and in-kind grants for building assets. As we know that attitudes and norms perpetuate many of these persistent gender gaps, several of the evaluations carried out with the support of the Gender Innovation Lab explore gender norms, including in Burundi and South Africa. An adaptive approach to economic opportunities for (2) for the job skills component, partnering directly young women with private sector companies at the outset and delivering specifically tailored skills-training packages Liberia: The Economic Empowerment of Adolescent to ensure higher employment rates for job skills Girls and Young Women (EPAG) is the most successful trainees; (3) condensing the training timetable to youth project in Liberia. Piloted under the AGI, the maximize impact and cost-effectiveness; and (4) project has helped young women aged 16–25 become designing trainee profiles specific to business or job 4 skills training and recruiting participants accordingly. World Bank (2010), Turkey: Expanding Opportunities for the Next Generation The project will also strengthen the institutional 19 capacity of the Adolescent Girls Unit at the Ministry of were rolled into the UFGE. As of June 30, 2013, the Gender and Development and develop a version of the UFGE had approved allocations of $25 million to EPAG project for adolescent boys and young men. strategic initiatives and an additional $17.5 million to regional block grants (table 4). A smaller portion of Haiti: This activity draws on lessons and early results funds (9 percent) has been retained by the Bank’s from ongoing AGI pilots to test interventions to socially Gender and Development Group (PRMGE) as the UFGE and economically empower 1,000 Haitian women secretariat for leveraging global partnerships, between the ages of 17–20 .The pilot aims to improve aggregate knowledge management activities, and the evidence base on what works to increase the administration of the UFGE. Plans are to allocate the employability of young girls and facilitate their entry bulk of the funds in the first two and a half years to into labor markets. The impact evaluation will review provide predictability and sufficient time for whether the intervention increased the skills of young implementation of activities. girls, their employment outcomes, and/or their empowerment and agency. In June 2013, 421 young To meet these allocation plans, $5.7 million in women from the first cohort graduated from the additional pledges is needed by June 2014. These training program. In addition to a high completion rate funds will enable the Regions to invest in areas where (95 percent), preliminary feedback from the project’s gender gaps persist and where knowledge and M&E system and qualitative evaluation has shown high evidence on interventions that work is scarce. In the levels of motivation and satisfaction among the first six months of implementation, demand for UFGE beneficiaries. The impact evaluation’s midline survey funds from the Regions exceeded current allocations. will take place in August/September 2013. The pilot For example, in LCR, a call for proposals was met with has also enabled new dialogue and partnerships an overwhelming response—20 proposals totaling $5 among ministries that could form the basis of a larger million were received—out of which only 10 activities engagement on technical training and for $1.1 million could be funded. Similarly in EAP, 18 entrepreneurship in Haiti, which are government proposals were received totaling $1.6 million. priorities and key components to boost innovation, competitiveness, and growth in the country. The gender equality agenda is large and the challenges often complex. Meeting these challenges requires working in partnership and sharing expertise and UFGE financials knowledge. The UFGE provides an important vehicle The UFGE has been made possible through generous for working in partnership and pooling resources for contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, investments that have large externalities and the Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, potential to make a real difference on the ground in Switzerland, and the United Kingdom that total $40.5 the countries where we work. million in pledges (table 3). Contributions include $1.5 million in residual funds from the GAP MDTF, which Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 20 Contributions Table 3. UFGE contributions Donors In US$ a Pledges Receipts To be received Australia 1,055,423 513,975 541,448 Canada 152,633 152,633 - Denmark 1,061,571 1,061,571 - Finland 145,568 145,568 - Germany 6,458,029 6,458,029 - Iceland 246,407 246,407 - Norway 3,082,669 1,437,608 1,645,062 Spain 551,151 551,151 - Sweden 6,612,815 2,597,258 4,015,557 Switzerland 3,257,169 3,257,169 - United Kingdom 17,826,681 642,168 17,184,513 Total 40,450,116 17,063,537 23,386,579 a . Amounts for pledges not yet received will vary over time due to currency exchange rates. 21 Allocations Table 4. UFGE allocation plan (US$) Allocations Total FY13 FY14 FY15 Regional block grants Africa 5,000,000 600,000 2,000,000 2,400,000 East Asia and Pacific 2,500,000 600,000 1,000,000 900,000 Europe and Central Asia 2,500,000 600,000 1,000,000 900,000 Latin America and Caribbean 2,500,000 600,000 1,000,000 900,000 Middle East and North Africa 2,500,000 600,000 1,000,000 900,000 South Asia 2,500,000 600,000 1,000,000 900,000 Regional block grant total 17,500,000 3,600,000 7,000,000 6,900,000 Strategic allocations Haiti 600,000 600,000 - - Bosnia Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, 2,085,850 2,085,850 Kosovo, and Serbia Liberia 1,990,080 995,040 995,040 - Turkey 4,283,975 1,427,992 1,427,992 1,427,992 Africa Gender Innovation Lab 16,418,280 4,000,000 7,418,280 5,000,000 Strategic allocation total 25,378,185 9,108,882 9,841,312 6,427,992 Knowledge management, partnership, and 2,500,000 500,000 800,000 1,200,000 coordination Total allocation 45,378,185 13,208,882 17,641,312 14,527,992 Total pledges to date 40,450,116 2% deducted for administrative fee and (778,300) investment income Net available for distribution 39,671,816 Funds to be raised to meet projected 5,706,369 5,706,369 allocation Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 22 Grants Table 5. UFGE grants # Activity Region Funding granted ($) 1 Africa Regional Studies AFR 950,000 2 Piloting Women’s Participatory Rural Land Registration in China EAP 80,000 3 Gender Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework for Lombok Regional EAP 50,000 Economic Development Project (Indonesia) 4 Pacific Gender Indicators in Fisheries (Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Republic of EAP 75,000 Marshall Islands 5 Meeting Needs for Long-Term Care and Implications for Female Labor Supply in EAP 140,000 China 6 Generating Evidence on Supply-Side Capacity to Inform the National Free Maternal EAP 60,000 and Child Health Policy (Lao PDR) 7 Situation Assessment for Men and Youth in Conflict-Affected Areas in Southern EAP 70,000 Thailand 8 GenderDimensions of Urbanization (China and Vietnam) EAP 100,000 9 Informal Trade Facilitation in the Mekong Subregion (Lao PDR and Cambodia) EAP 80,000 10 “Hem No Leit Tumas”: Evidence for Improved Outcomes in Solomon Islands EAP 65,000 Women’s Literacy Programs 11 Regional Fund for In-Country Capacity Building and M&E EAP 450,000 12 Land and Leadership ECA 120,000 13 ECAGEN Database ECA 140,000 14 Gender-Informed Road Safety ECA 220,000 15 Missing Girls in the South Caucasus ECA 140,000 23 Table 5. UFGE grants # Activity Region Funding granted ($) 16 Gender Modules in Household Surveys ECA 200,000 17 Show Me Your Soft Skills: Gender-Age Hidden Biases in Employers’ Assessment of ECA 80,000 Behavioral Skills (impact evaluation) 18 Addressing Ethnic and Gender Discrimination of Roma Women in the Labor Market ECA 50,000 in Romania (impact evaluation) 19 Adolescent Girls Initiative for Roma Girls and Economic and Social Integration of ECA 85,000 Roma Adolescent Boys 20 Gender Inequalities in Health Outcomes and Dependent Care Arrangements in the ECA 85,000 Context of the Regional Aging Report 21 Access to Justice for Poor women ECA 50,000 22 Gender Sensitivity in Energy Projects ECA 200,000 23 Land and Gender—ImprovingData Availability and Use in the Western Balkans ECA 45,000 24 Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs in Russia ECA 90,000 25 Incorporating Gender in the Moldova Competitiveness Enhancement Project II ECA 40,000 26 Jobs: The Engine of Shared Prosperity for Men and Women ECA 100,000 27 Text Me Maybe! On Peer-to-Peer Sexual Education and Mobile Texting to Reduce LCR 65,000 the Risk of Teenage Pregnancy (Ecuador) 28 Expanding Women’s Agency through Productive Inclusion in Rural Areas at LCR 110,000 Northeast Brazil 29 Building Women’s Agency as a Tool to Overcoming Violent Circumstances LCR 128,500 (Colombia) 30 Urban Mass Transport: Gender Agency and Inclusion (Brazil) LCR 150,000 31 Piloting the Delivery of Agencyin Haiti LCR 130,000 Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 24 Table 5. UFGE grants # Activity Region Funding granted ($) 32 Migration and the Changing Role of Women in Agriculture: The Case from Latin LCR 114,000 America and the Caribbean (Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico) 33 Understanding Agency by Measuring Women’s Perception on Exclusion and LCR 120,000 Discrimination (Bolivia) 34 Advancing Gender Agency in LAC: Experiences from the Transport Sector LCR 150,000 35 Developing a Model for Gender-Sensitive Post-Disaster Response and Gender- LCR 90,000 Inclusive Climate Adaptation Finance (Saint Lucia, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, and Small Island Developing States) 36 Expanding Labor Market Opportunities of Women in El Salvador LCR 60,000 37 LCR Knowledge Management of Regional Funds LCR 600,000 38 Youth, Gender, and ICT Program SAR 200,000 39 Gender Innovation Lab South Asia SAR 200,000 40 Addressing Gender-Based Violence in South Asia SAR 600,000 Strategic allocations 41 Africa Gender Innovation Lab AFR 16,418,280 42 Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (Liberia, Round 3) AFR 1,906,325 43 Increasing Access to Economic Opportunities for Women in Turkey ECA 4,275,000 44 Haiti Adolescent Girls Initiative LCR 600,000 45 Promoting Gender Equality in the Western Balkans ECA 2,085,850 Note: AFR = Africa Region; EAP = East Asia and Pacific Region; ECA = Europe and Central Asia Region; LCR = Latin America and Caribbean Region; SAR = South Asia Region. 25 ADOLESCENT GIRLS INITIATIVE Photo: Stephan Bachenheimer / World Bank Launched on October 10, 2008, as part of the World Bank Group’s Gender Action Plan (GAP), the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) aims to help adolescent girls and young women transition to productive employment.The initiative is being piloted in eight low-income countries—including some of the toughest environments for girls. Each pilot is tailored to country context, with a common goal of discovering what works best in programming to help adolescent girls and young women succeed in the labor market. Most pilots include a rigorous impact evaluation. With new knowledge of what works, successful approaches can be replicated and brought to scale. Progress and achievements in 2013 Pilot highlights cohort began training in May 2013 and includes 650 During fiscal year 2013, AGI pilots were underway in girls. Girls are being trained in vocations including food Afghanistan, Haiti, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, processing, arts and crafts, culinary arts, and 5 Liberia, Nepal, Rwanda, and South Sudan. Updates on agriculture.In addition, they are receiving training in each pilot are included at the end of this section. The life skills and business development as well as social pilots in Rwanda, Haiti, and Afghanistan are in the support services. early stages of implementation and made significant progress over the last year. In June 2013, 421 girls graduated from the first cohort of training in Haiti. The program in Haiti includes The Rwanda Economic Empowerment of Adolescent training in vocational areas that are considered Girls and Young Women Project is being implemented untraditional for women and where there is proven by the Ministry of Gender and Promotion of Family, employer demand such as, mechanics, refrigeration, the Workforce Development Authority, and the Imbuto electricity, construction, computer science, Foundation. Training is being delivered in three cohorts information technology (IT) services, and hoteling. Girls and will reach 2,000 girls in four districts. The first also receive life skills training and placement in internships following training to help them transition 5 The pilot in Jordan was implemented between December to the labor market. 2010 and August 2011. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 26 The Afghanistan Female Youth Employment Initiative has mobilized applications from 2,822 female youth, which exceeded the target by 20 percent. All applications have been endorsed by families and schools and 50 percent of the applications were from youth under age 20. Applications were sourced through School Management Shuras, which facilitated acceptance and approval by parents and communities. Plans are underway for the training to begin in the fall of 2013. The pilot phase for Lao PDR, Liberia, Nepal, and South Sudan ended during fiscal year 2013. The next section highlights post pilot plans and opportunities. Going to scale Photo: Sarah E. Haddock / World Bank The AGI’s approach to scaling up is to use the lessons, FROM THE FIELD: experience, and evidence gained from pilot NEPAL ADOLESCENT GIRLS EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE interventions to reach more adolescent girls and young women through more effective project design and Sabita Sapkota lives in the Narayani Zone of southern M&E. The strategy includes: (1) integrating pilots or Nepal. She graduated from a three-month mobile applying the approach used in larger World Bank phone repair training in 2012. As part of the Nepal AGI lending operations in AGI countries and (2) translating program, Sabita also received five-day training in life skills and five days of business skills training. She found knowledge and evidence gained into project design out about the training from a radio announcement and and policy advice so that larger-scale operations more was eager to apply. effectively reach adolescent girls in non-AGI countries. Before enrolling in the program, Sabita stayed home all The Liberia and Nepal AGI pilots were allocated day and spent her time doing household chores. Less additional funds specifically for these purposes under than two months after completing the training, she the AGI’s Scale and Innovation Fund. These funds are used her own savings from her rotating savings club and being used to position the pilots for scale up and to some money from her husband to open her own mobile build capacity based on implementation lessons and phone repair shop. She says that many customers come results from the impact evaluation. to the shop out of curiosity to see a woman fixing phones. Sabita has hired another young woman and is In Liberia, two additional rounds of training are being training her to be a shop assistant. In the future, she hopes to expand her shop and continue moving planned. Rounds 3 and 4 are building on the results forward. from the impact evaluation to better position the program for expansion. Design changes are being introduced to reduce program costs and expand the program’s reach to younger women (ages 15–24) and those in rural and peri-urban areas. Support is also being provided to build capacity in the Ministry of Gender and Development to address the needs of adolescent girls through the establishment of an Adolescent Girls Unit. Lessons from the AGI are being 27 shared as the government of Liberia considers a Impact evaluations broader youth development strategy. From its inception, the AGI was designed to test innovative interventions to facilitate young women’s In Nepal, the AGI isproviding support to develop M&E labor market entry and to measure the results using tools and mechanisms to assess project progress for rigorous evaluation methods. To this end, each pilot nationwide Enhanced Vocational Education and under the AGI includes a strong focus on M&E, with a Training (EVENT) project (see From the Field box). This core impact evaluation team that works closely with will provide the Nepal government with information on the projects during design and implementation. At the young women’s access to such programs and on the end of the initiative, the resulting evidence from these immediate training outcomes and longer-term labor evaluations will serve to inform future Bank operations market outcomes. The AGI team is also providing and contribute to the knowledge base on adolescent technical support to share “girl-friendly” girls’ empowerment. implementation lessons with government implementers. EVENT is a $50 million IDA project that In fiscal year 2013, significant progress was made on will reach approximately 75,000 Nepali youth AGI impact evaluations. Of the eight pilots under the beneficiaries and includes incentive schemes to initiative; six are on track to have rigorous impact specifically target poor women between the ages of evaluations that employ experimental methodologies. 16–35 and disadvantaged youth. For those evaluations at more advanced stages, the impact evaluation team has begun processing and Efforts are also being made to build on the experience analyzing data from surveys of AGI participants. As of the South Sudan AGI. A $21 million IDA financing of these evaluations progress and yield results, the the Social Safety Net and Skills Development Program impact evaluation and knowledge management for South Sudan was approved in June 2013. The skills specialists have been working closely to draw out key development component will expand on the AGI pilot messages and disseminate findings both internally and to develop a parallel gender-sensitive training package externally through presentations, reports, and for young men, as well as expand the reach of the academic publications. current program for adolescent girls. The Knowledge management implementing partner of the AGI pilot, BRAC plans to In fiscal year 2013, two note series were launched. The maintain the current clubs in the communities where operational series focuses on design and they were established. implementation lessons. Topics cover all stages of the project cycle—design, implementation, and M&E—and In Lao PDR, AusAID has provided funding for a phase II draw on the experience of AGI implementers and Bank of the Supporting Talent, Entrepreneurial Potential, task teams. The results series focuses on findings from and Success (STEPS) project. Priority in this next phase the impact evaluations of the AGI pilots. In fiscal year will be on: (1) launching another round of the 2013, four lessons learned and two results notes were Marketplace Competition to build on experience of published. The notes are available on the AGI Website what works in women’s entrepreneurship and and were distributed through an e-newsletter to a exploring integration of the model within larger World community of over 3,000 practitioners. Bank, Young Entrepreneurs Association of Lao PDR, and/or government of Lao PDR programs; and (2) To raise awareness within the Bank, lessons and results working with National University of Lao and Pakpasak are being disseminated through seminars organized Technical College to sustain the Career Counseling jointly with other units. To raise awareness outside the Offices for the 2013–14 school year and beyond. Bank, findings from the impact evaluations are being presented and discussed at conferences such as the Making Cents Conference (September 2012, Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 28 Washington, DC) and Center for the Study of African jewelry design and textile tie and die, that have Economies Conference (March 2013, Oxford, England). significant market potential. The Liberia team also assisted WDA curriculum development staff in creating Capacity building reference manuals for the various curriculum tracks. World Bank teams and implementing partners of the AGI are actively engaging in cross-country learning Social Protection and Learning Forum. Hyderabad, exchanges. These capacity-building activities are India, November 2012: The Liberia EPAG Monitoring helping to improve project implementation and and Evaluation Officer attended a learning exchange increase dissemination and cross-fertilization of on social protection organized by the World Bank. The practical lessons learned. During the past year, three exchange highlighted evidence on the increasing events took place and are highlighted below. number of employment opportunities in the informal sector and included site visits to successful AGI Technical Workshop. Monrovia, Liberia, August interventions in Hyderabad, including village self-help 27–29, 2012: To facilitate learning across AGI pilots, groups (SHG). Lack of business inputs and start-up the World Bank Gender and Development Group capital has been identified as a key constraint to (PRMGE) organized a technical workshop hosted by business growth among EPAG graduates. The Liberia the Liberia Ministry of Gender and Development. The team is considering how the concept of the SHG could objectives were to: (1) highlight emerging lessons from be customized for adolescent girls in Liberia. project design and implementation; (2) exchange experiences and lessons related to M&E; and (3) share Funds have been secured from the South –South MDTF learning on pilot institutionalization and positioning for for a learning exchange between the Afghanistan and scale-up. Participants included implementing partners Nepal teams and the Liberia and Rwanda teams. These and Bank task teams from six of the eight pilot exchanges will take place in the fall of 2013. countries (Afghanistan, Lao PDR, Liberia, Nepal, Rwanda, and South Sudan) as well as members of the AGI financials Bank impact evaluation team, the Nike Foundation, UN Women, and donors. The AGI has received trust fund resources from the GAP MDTF (which is now closed), the Economic Liberia-Rwanda Learning Exchange. Kigali, Rwanda, Empowerment of Adolescent Girls MDTF (which November 2012 and 2013: The executive director of financed the Liberia pilot and has now closed), the AGI one of the four service providers of the Liberia EPAG MDTF, and the UFGE. Table 6 lists the donors who and a curriculum specialist who worked with the have generously contributed to this initiative through Liberia AGI traveled to Rwanda to advise the Rwandan the AGI MDTF and the Economic Empowerment of 7 AGI team on their program design. With the Workforce Adolescent Girls MDTF. Significant Bank resources Development Authority (WDA; the agency charged have also been contributed in the form of staff time, with delivering trainings for the Rwanda AGI), the however, these contributions are not reflected in the Liberian counterparts reviewed the Rwandan tables. Table 7 provides the overall AGI budget. curriculum, introducing lessons from the experience of the AGI in Liberia. To make implementation more 7 manageable, the WDA curriculum was reduced from Funding was also received from the GAP MDTF. These funds 6 are reflected in the overall AGI budget, however, the trust nine tracks to four. These discussions helped refocus funds has officially closed. the arts and crafts curriculum and identify two areas, 6 Culinary arts (1), arts and crafts (2), food processing (3), and agro-processing (4). 29 Contributions Table 6. AGI contributions Donors In US$ Pledges Receipts AGI MDTF Denmark—Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs 5,039,524 5,039,524 United Kingdom—Department for International Development (DFID) 3,101,900 3,101,900 Norway—Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2,568,554 2,568,554 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) 4,280,498 4,280,498 Nike Foundation 2,000,000 2,000,000 Total AGI MDTF 16,990,477 16,990,477 Other Trust Fund Sources EPAG Liberia—Nike Foundation 3,250,000 3,250,000 Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality 600,000 600,000 AusAID Externally Financed Output (EFO) 202,777 202,777 Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 30 Allocations Table 7. AGI allocations In US$ AGI GAP Others Total 1. AGI pilots Afghanistan 2,410,000 - - 2,410,000 a Haiti 1,140,000 1,000,000 600,000 2,740,000 Jordan - 1,050,000 - 1,050,000 c Lao PDR - 200,000 202,777 402,777 b Liberia 2,044,614 40,000 3,118,215 5,202,829 Nepal 2,410,000 - - 2,410,000 Rwanda 3,231,360 - - 3,231,360 South Sudan 1,670,616 500,000 - 2,170,616 Total AGI pilots 12,906,590 2,790,000 3,920,992 19,617,582 2. AGI IEs Coordination of the IEs 509,000 - - 509,000 AGI IEs Africa 1,073,000 - - 1,073,000 AGI IEs South Asia 768,000 - - 768,000 Total AGI IEs 2,350,000 - - 2,350,000 3. Scale and Innovation Fund Nepal 210,000 - - 210,000 Liberia 200,000 - - 200,000 AGI and Youth Employment Report 200,000 - - 200,000 Technical assistance 150,000 - - 150,000 Total Scale and Innovation Fund 760,000 - - 760,000 2 4. Knowledge management 285,000 - 38,243 323,243 5. AGI program administration and coordination 575,000 - - 575,000 Grand total 16,876,590 2,790,000 3,959,235 23,625,825 Note: IE = impact evaluation. a. UFGE MDTF. b. EPAG MDTF. c. AusAID EFO. 31 Status of Pilot Implementation Afghanistan—Female Youth Employment Initiative Haiti—Adolescent Girls Initiative (FYEI) • Pilot financing: $2 million  Pilot financing: $2.05 million  Target population and location: 1,000 vulnerable  Target population and location: 1,300 young young women aged 17 to 20 living in Port au women aged 18 to 30 who are high school Prince. graduates from Balkh’s urban areas and select  Partner ministries: Ministry of Women’s Affairs districts. (MCFDF), Ministry of Education and Technical  Lead ministry: Ministry of Education (MoE) Training (MEFP).  Implementing agency: MoE, Deputy Ministry of Administration and Finance, through Educational Implementation update: The project was launched in Quality Improvement Project. May 2012. The first cohort (500 young women) entered training in November 2012 and graduated in Implementation update: The project was launched June 2013. The second cohort (500 young women) is on January 31, 2012, at the MoE in Kabul. A baseline expected to start training in September 2013. survey of 2,800 eligible girls was fielded in February Participants are receiving four to six months of 2013. The program will consist of 10 months of training in vocational areas that are considered classroom training in demand-driven fields and life untraditional for women and where there is proven skills, followed by three months of follow-up and employer demand—mechanics, refrigeration, placement assistance.Malnutrition has been electricity, construction, computer science, IT identified as one of the priority issues for the life skills services, and hoteling. Training is being delivered at training, and the program is collaborating with the four training centers in Port-au-Prince. Beneficiaries Bank-supported South Asia Food and Nutrition receive a monthly stipend to cover the costs Security Initiative to develop a nutrition education associated with training. The girls are accompanied in module. Competitive selection of the training their neighborhood by recognized community providers is underway. Training is expected to begin organizations that provide support services and in fall 2013. mentorship. The girls also receive life skills training based on a locally adapted curriculum. At the end of Prospects for scale-up: The task team involved the their training, the young women will be offered MoE during the design phase and the pilot was internships to help them transition into the labor designed in close collaboration with an existing World market. Bank–government education program to take advantage of potential synergies. The Minister of Prospects for scale-up: The design of the project will Education has since expressed support for scaling up inform other Bank projects with a jobs/skill the AGI to other provinces, if there is available component (three pipelined projects have already funding and sufficient on-the-ground success from been identified for potential mainstreaming of AGI the pilot. The project is seeking links with other Bank project lessons). The pilot has also enabled new programs, for example, with the proposed dialogue and partnerships in ministries that could Afghanistan Skills Development Project II and form the basis of a larger engagement on technical Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Project. training in Haiti, which is a government priority and a key component to boost innovation, competitiveness, and growth in the country. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 32 Jordan—New Work Opportunities for Women Lao PDR—Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) (NOW)  Financing:$0.4 million  Pilot financing: $1.05 million  Target population: Youth ages 18 to 35 (majority  Target population: 1,800 young women graduates are female) from three provincial capitals. from eight community colleges.  Implementing agency: Young Entrepreneur  Implementing agency: Ministry of Planning and Association of Lao PDR (YEAL), National University International Cooperation, and the Ministry of of Laos (NUOL), and Pakpasak Technical College. Higher Education and Scientific Research is also involved in design and implementation. Implementation update: STEPS is experimenting with two different interventions to help young people Implementation update: The pilot was launched in increase their participation in the labor market: (1) a September 2010. Three hundred and seventy-three Marketplace Competition to promote a culture of young women received employability skills training, entrepreneurship by identifying and supporting young and 97 percent of these women completed training entrepreneurs who are seeking to start or expand a by November 2010. By the time the incentive business; and (2) Career Counseling Offices (CCOs) to payments expired in August 2011, 301 young provide job placement services to recent graduates graduates had successfully used job vouchers to who are looking for employment in the private sector. secure employment. Emerging results: Project monitoring data show that Evaluation findings: Results from the impact 59 percent of Marketplace participants (more than evaluation found that while the job voucher was half of whom are female) reported starting a new active, female graduates with vouchers were 39 business or expanding a preexisting business within percent more likely to work than female graduates one year of completing STEPS training. In total, 21 without vouchers. However, this effect was new businesses were started and 20 businesses temporary and did not last after the vouchers expanded their operations. Forty-seven percent of expired. Outside central Jordan, girls with vouchers the graduates registered with the CCO at NUOL (more continued to have higher employment rates, but this than half female) and 44 percent at Pakpasak may have come at the expense of those who didn’t Technical College (more than one-third female) have vouchers. Employability skills training showed reported being employed within one year of no statistically significant impact on employment graduation. Eighty-nine percent of NUOL students (85 outcomes in either the short or longterm. However, percent female) and 95 percent of Pakpasak students training did boost self-confidence and mental well- (96 percent female) obtained an internship within being among the graduates. The results suggest that three months of graduation. wage subsidies can help increase employment in the short term, but are not a panacea for the problems of Prospects for scale-up: Based on these encouraging high urban female youth unemployment. M&E findings, the World Bank received funding from AusAID in July 2012 to support the program for an Prospects for scale-up: In consultation with additional 18 months and launch a second round of government counterparts, the pilot was extended to the Young Entrepreneur Marketplace Competition, include a hands-on job-matching program in October expanding to two additional provincial capitals. The 2011. Insights from the evaluation are being used to STEPS program will continue its activities until identify demand-side and regulatory constraints to December 2013. The World Bank is also continuing its the school-to-work transition of young people. support for the two CCOs and will focus efforts on the development of sustainability plans that fully integrate the CCOs into the schools’ plans and budgets. 33 Liberia—Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Nepal—Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative Girls and Young Women (EPAG)  Financing: $2.05 million  Financing: $5.2 million  Target population: 4,375 young women ages 16 to  Target population: 2,500 young women ages 16 to 24 who are socially discriminated against, poor, 27 in Greater Monrovia and Kakata City. and have low levels of education.  Lead ministry and implementing agency:Ministry  Lead ministry: Ministry of Education of Gender and Development (MoGD)  Implementing agency: Helvetas, with 20–25 training providers Implementation update: In the first round (March 2010), 1,131 girls received training, and in the second Implementation update: Three rounds of training round (July 2011), 1,277 girls attended training. About have been completed: 810 adolescent girls were 65 percent of the girls were trained in business trained in 2010, 1,664 in 2011, and 1,936 in 2012. development skills and roughly 35 percent trained in Livelihood training spans 39 occupations across 44 job skills. All girls received life skills training. districts of Nepal. All trainees receive life skills Posttraining, all graduates entered a six-month training and business and enterprise skills training for support period where they were assisted with job those interested in starting a business. Trainees are searching and placement or otherwise supported to assisted with job searching and placement or receive start their own businesses. mentoring to help start their own businesses. Evaluation results: Preliminary midline survey results Emerging results: Preliminary results from the impact include: evaluation did not find significant impacts on nonfarm  The program led to a 50 percent increase in employment or earnings among the 2010 cohort of employment and a 115 percent increase in trainees. However, participants in the 2011 cohort average weekly income among beneficiaries increased their nonfarm employment by about 20 compared to those in the control group. percentage points, and increased their time spent  The majority of the employment increase was working during the past month by nearly 30 hours. driven by the business skills track. Furthermore, the likelihood of earning at least  The program also significantly increased average 3,000RS in the past month increased by about 20 weekly incomes and girls’ savings. percentage points for the 2011 trainees. Future work  The results will be in the coming year, and a final for the impact evaluation in 2013 will include endline survey will facilitate deeper analysis of refinement of the current analysis, expansion to other longer-term impacts. outcomes, and analysis of two-year impacts for 2010 trainees. Prospects for scale-up: EPAG received $2 million in Prospects for scale-up: Strong links have been strategic UFGE funding to adapt the model to reach a established with the Bank-supported Technical and broader geographic base and prepare for scale-up. Vocational Education and Training (TVET) project.The The project will also develop modules for targeting monitoring system of the AGI is being integrated into boys and developing agriculture skills. The project is this national program. AGI approaches, such as working to strengthen the MoGD’s Adolescent Girls providing incentives for trainers to train girls from Unit to become a driving force for adolescent girls’ vulnerable groups, have informed the design of the program coordination, monitoring, and policy TVET project. Over the next year, the AGI team will advocacy in Liberia. focus on documenting lessons learned and building government capacity to strengthen the focus on young women in national programs. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 34 Rwanda—Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) South Sudan—Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI)  Financing: $2.7 million  Financing: $1.9 million  Target population: 2,000 young women ages 16 to  Target population: 3,000 young women ages 15 to 24 who are literate from two urban and two rural 24 from four states. districts of Rwanda.  Lead ministry: Ministry of Gender, Child, and  Lead ministry: Ministry of Gender and Family Social Development Promotion (MIGEPROF)  Implementing agency: BRAC South Sudan  Implementing agency: MIGEPROF, Workforce Implementation update: 100 adolescent clubs, Development Authority (WDA), and Imbuto staffed with 100 adolescent leaders, have been Foundation established in five counties in four states of South Sudan. Todate, 1,659 club members have received Implementation update: The project was launched livelihood training. About 60 percent of members on April 2, 2012, during a ceremony in Kigali. A have received agriculture training; other fields include communication strategy and campaign to sensitize poultry farming, goat rearing, small business, girls, parents, and communities began in mid- tailoring, salons, catering, and carpentry. All 3,000 October, and since then, 650 girls have been recruited girls have received life skills and financial literacy and selected to receive training in the first round of training. BRAC is also providing savings and credit the program. The technical training will be delivered services to qualified girls. by the government agency WDA, covering four areas: food processing, culinary arts, arts and crafts, and Emerging results: According to project monitoring agro processing. Training manuals have been data, 1,449 trainees are currently employed. Informal developed for these areas. Training began in May conversations with girls and young women show high 2013. levels of engagement and confidence, reflected in increased awareness of issues such as protection Prospects for scale-up: The Bank project team is against rape, early pregnancy and family planning, working closely with a Bank-financed skills and increased knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDs. development project under preparation to ensure Project implementers report that family members that AGI training modules are coordinated and and communities have more respect for their mainstreamed into the larger Bank project. The Girl adolescent girls as they find their daughters more Hub in Rwanda (Nike/UK Department for knowledgeable and able to earn money to support International Development partnership), which has a family expenses. Results from the impact evaluation magazine and radio program targeting adolescent are expected in the summer of 2014. girls, helped to advertise the AGI during the recruitment drive. Prospects for scale-up: Lessons from AGI South Sudan life skills and livelihood training are being institutionalized through an IDA-supported social protection project.The social protection team is strongly committed to injecting substantial resources into creating stronger links with national policies and programs to streamline the lessons from AGI. BRAC is committed to continuing club activities at the current pilot phase level. BRAC is also interested in opening the clubs to younger girls as well as boys, and in reaching adults with literacy classes. 35 WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES Photo: Arne Hoel / World Bank The Women’s Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (WLSME) is an innovative partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that aims to increase the entry and growth of women-owned and women-managed small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Understanding why women do not participate more actively in SME entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for their higher engagement through effective interventions can yield high dividends in terms of productivity and broad-based economic growth.The WLSME invests in rigorous evaluations of innovative interventions to help answer “what works” in promoting women-led SMEs. Progress and achievements in 2013 The WLSME is a $8.5 million USAID-supported concrete interventions that can be replicated or scaled initiative. The World Bank manages $3.5 million of up. these funds in the form of a singledonor trust fund (SDTF, 2011-2015). The fund has allocated $3 million to Each intervention selected for rigorous impact evaluations of innovative initiatives in 13 countries in evaluation was drawn from the portfolio of existing or Africa, Central Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and planned World Bank projects. Bank teams were invited North Africa, and South Asia. to submit a proposal for the evaluation of their ongoing or planned work. The advantage of evaluating Under the broad umbrella of promoting entry and existing Bank projects rather than developing new growth of women-led SMEs, these evaluations experimental pilots is that evidence is gathered in the measure the relative impacts and payoffs, within context of a full-scale intervention—reflecting a “real” specific contexts, of investing in better access to project situation. Scalability can also be included finance for women, providing business training, because the intervention is already part of a reducing regulatory constraints, and improving government project or program. Funding was offered infrastructure. Many of the evaluations also consider for the following activities: the relative importance of networking capital, risk aversion, and other attributes. This important work will ultimately offer policy lessons and examples of Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 36  modifying the design of a project to better target connect buyers allows for an experimental women-run enterprises and incorporate an impact measurement of whether and how buyers discriminate evaluation; when selecting suppliers.  strengthening the gender focus of an ongoing Gender gaps in human capital: Can training help impact evaluation to measure gender- women start and grow successful businesses? And if disaggregated outcomes; and so, what kind of training? The WLSME is supporting a  designing an intervention that focuses on number of evaluations of training provided to female increasing the entry and growth of women-owned entrepreneurs. The training ranges from standard and/or women-managed SMEs. business administration and management to personal The demand was overwhelming; 26 proposals totaling “hand-holding” through mentors. Training is $11,266,100 were submitted. A selection panel sometimes paired with a financial package or composed ofUSAID representatives and Bank staff opportunities to build networks with peers to better selected eight proposals covering interventions in 13 understand what combination of support benefits countries. women the most. Impact evaluations As of June 30, 2013, activities were in the early stages WLSME impact evaluations seek to learn how policies of implementation. Most evaluation and intervention and interventions can reduce the constraints designs had been finalized, and baseline results will disproportionately faced by women-led SMEs. Broadly, become available in the coming year. In the case of these constraints include: South Africa, the baseline iscomplete and a chapter for an upcoming book on gender and trade in Africa has 8 Regulatory and infrastructure constraints: In Africa, been prepared from a non-experimental analysis of the evaluations are measuring the relative impacts of data. The chapter explores determinants of becoming infrastructure investments on improving market access an exporter and identifies potential key constraints to for women-led firms. In the Kyrgyz Republic and growth and participation in international trade for Tajikistan, a Bank team is assessing the drivers of gaps women-led firms—areas that willbe explored in the between laws and their implementation—specifically, final evaluation. implementation of tax inspections—to better understand the resulting gender-specific impacts. In Early qualitative diagnostics have been completed in the Arab Republic of Egypt, the use of specialized some cases to inform evaluation designs and identify windows for women by financial intermediaries is one priority areas. For instance, gaps in implementation of of the innovations being evaluated to learn how to tax inspections were identified through in-country increase women’s access to finance and business consultations as the regulatory focus area of the development services. evaluations in the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. Results of qualitative work in Tunisia designed to Social capital and information gaps: Several better understand the constraints to entrepreneurship evaluations, including the above, attempt to measure will be presented at a workshop in Tunis in the fall of the role of social capital and access to information. The 2013. The entrepreneurship track at Tunisian baseline assumption is that women tend to possess universities being evaluated with WLSME support has less social capital and have less access to information, received a lot of publicity and a documentary is in which are vital for market access and the growth of production. their businesses. In South Africa, an innovative pilot using an online (Web and mobile) marketplace to Measuring firm performance through a gender lens The WLSME recognizes that firm performance depends 8 The Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and South on the specific challenges faced by the firm’s decision Africa. maker, which often vary by gender. To help measure 37 firm performance and related gender gaps, the Bank In the coming year, the WLSME will sponsor a series of led the process of developing common indicators to be learning events to engage researchers and included in impact evaluations and more general practitioners in dialogue on how best to remove the surveys. Six guiding modules provide standardized constraints that women-led firms face. As baseline questions that can be adapted to specific project or results emerge, preliminary insights will be made survey contexts in the following areas: access to available. Ultimately, this innovative partnership is finance, noncognitive business-related skills, human expected to produce important evidence and lessons capital, profits, and agency. All modules draw on on what works to be shared through papers, brief lessons from recent literature andare available on the policy notes, tools for practitioners, and various World Bank’s Gender and Development Web site. learning events and workshops. Knowledge sharing WLSME financials The official launch of the WLSME took place on November 13, 2012, and brought together USAID, the The WLSME SDTF became active on June 1, 2012. Of World Bank, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) the total contribution of $3.5 million, $3 million has and the Goldman Sachs Foundation, which have been been allocated to eight grants, with the remaining pioneering work in this area. The event highlighted $500,000 going toward technical support, opportunities to draw women into business leadership administration and management, and knowledge roles. sharing by PRMGE (tables 8 and 9). In April, a conference was held in Washington, DC, for As of June 30, 2013, $1.3 million in pledges had been researchers and practitioners from the World Bank received and disbursed to each grant. Overall, Group and USAID to take stock of what is known and disbursement across evaluations has been slightly discuss innovative interventions to grow women-led slower than anticipated, as some of the evaluated businesses. Participants also discussed programs and Bank projects were awaiting Board approval. However, interventions that failed and the reasons for those all evaluations are on track to complete on time. failures. The event also served as the formal launch of a new World Bank Female Entrepreneurship Resource Point. This online resource provides practical guidance and recommendations and serves as a clearinghouse for emerging evidence on female entrepreneurs. Contributions Table 8. WLSME contributions Donors In US$ Pledges Receipts To be received USAID 3,500,000 1,313,500 2,186,500 Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 38 Allocations Table 9. WLSME allocations Pilots In US$ Allocations Disbursed Balance and committed Measuring and Reducing Regulatory Uncertainty and Discretion for Female 600,000 199,251 400,749 Entrepreneurs in Central Asia Haiti—Fostering Woman’s Involvement in Agro-Enterprise for Improved Food 350,000 84,763 265,237 Quality and Household Food Security Testing Relative Impacts of Training, Access to Finance, and Social Networks for 300,000 112,932 187,068 Fostering Entrepreneurial Success in Sierra Leone Improving Market Access of WLSMEs in Africa through Innovative Programs 350,000 37,718 312,282 Providing Integrated Support and Incubation Services for Graduates of the 350,000 74,228 275,772 University Entrepreneurship Track in Tunisia Pakistan Women Entrepreneurs 400,000 35,049 364,951 Innovative Approaches to Develop Entrepreneurial Capacities of Female-Led 350,000 19,102 330,898 Business Egyptian Women Leadership in Micro and Small Enterprises 300,000 21,452 278,548 Subtotal pilots 3,000,000 584,496 2,415,504 Communication and dissemination 104,000 884 103,116 Technical support, supervision, and implementation activities 221,000 11,850 209,150 Program management and administration 105,000 30,320 74,680 Grand total 3,430,000 627,550 2,802,450 39 WLSME Interventions Improving Market Access of Women-Led SMEs in Measuring and Reducing Regulatory Uncertainty and Africa Discretion for Female Entrepreneurs in Central Asia Countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Countries: Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan Mozambique, and South Africa Intervention and evaluation: Anecdotal evidence Intervention and evaluation: Market access for suggests the gaps between on-the-paper laws and women-led SMEs relies in part on having adequate regulations and their implementation lead to infrastructure in place, but it is also a matter of differential treatment of male and female helping women overcome information asymmetries entrepreneurs. Preliminary data also suggest that due to their lower networking capital. In South Africa, while women seem to experience governance-related ICT is being leveraged with an online and mobile issues less often, corruption has a more significant phone accessible marketplace that connects buyers to impact on women’s business decisions. Taking SME suppliers. The randomized control trial will help advantage of ongoing investment climate projects in shed light on whether an online marketplace can help the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, point-of-service female entrepreneurs market themselves better and delivery surveys of entrepreneurs will measure build trust through a ratings system, as well as discrepancies between female and male understand whether buyers discriminate based on entrepreneurs in the administration of tax personal characteristics (including gender) when inspectionservices. Additionally, the survey aims to selecting suppliers. In the Democratic Republic of address questions around women’s access to Congo (DRC) and Mozambique, Growth Pole projects information, whether knowledge gaps have more are addressing the multiple, intertwined challenges adverse impacts on women than men, and whether SMEs face by improving infrastructure, delivering certain policy interventions can help reduce the technical support to and incubating SMEs, and discrepancies in implementation of tax inspections. providing skills development training. Evaluations will The diagnostic will result in pilots of policy measure impacts of infrastructure investments on interventions, such as improving access to gender differences in market access (for energy and information or using feedback mechanisms, which will mining, specifically in Mozambique) and firm be impact evaluated. performance. Implementation update: The early diagnostic phase Implementation update: A baseline report has been to identify and measure key drivers of the regulatory prepared for South Africa and early findings are implementation gap has started, and stakeholder presented in a background paper for an upcoming consultations determined tax inspections as the focus book on trade and gender in Africa. Evaluation area. Enterprise Survey methodology was selected for designs for DRC and Mozambique will be completed data collection, and the evaluation survey in 2013 and baseline surveys carried out in 2014. instruments have been designed and firms contracted. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 40 Fostering Women’s Involvement in Agroenterprise Innovative Approaches to Developing for Improved Food Quality and Household Food Entrepreneurial Capacities of Female-Led Firms Security Countries: Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Togo Country: Haiti Intervention and evaluation: While the rate of Intervention and evaluation: Increasing the quality entrepreneurship is high among women in Africa, and quantity of food produced presents an important significant gender gaps exist in productivity and market opportunity for Haiti and plays an important performance. Closing gaps in human capital could role in improving the country’s food security. The IDA help relieve some of the main productivity constraints funded Re-Launching Agriculture: Strengthening that women entrepreneurs face. The WLSME is Agriculture Public Services II Project, which aims to expanding the evidence base on how training and improve the Ministry of Agriculture’s capacity to mentoring may promote development of deliver key services (such as extension services) to entrepreneurial and managerial capacities. As part of small farmers. Female farmers face multiple the Private Sector Development Support Project in constraints, such as low levels of financial literacy and Togo, alternative business training models are being limited technical knowledge. In one of the project’s tested and their relative impacts evaluated. In components, a matching grants facility for farmer Ethiopia, the Women Entrepreneurship Development groups, the WLSME is supporting an evaluation of Project is evaluating the potential effects of training targeting the women’s self-identified complementing access to finance with business and constraints. A combination of business technical training. And in Nigeria, the Youth administration, food quality–related, and Enterprise with Innovation project is helping to noncognitive skills are being offered, and their understand the potential of business mentoring impacts will be evaluated. paired with a business plan competition. Implementation update: The impact methodology Implementation update: The design of the pilot and has been designed and will be finalized with the evaluation in Togo has been finalized and the baseline project’s overall evaluation, which is still being survey is expected in fall 2013. The World Bank planned. Work has begun on tailoring the training project in Ethiopia was recently approved and curricula. Collection of baseline data is underway, and implementation will begin shortly. In Nigeria, the a call for proposals for matching fund grants is baseline survey and follow-up survey have been expected to launch in late summer of 2013. completed. 41 Testing the Relative Impacts of Training, Access to Providing Integrated Support and Incubation Finance, and Social Networks for Fostering Services for Graduates of a University Entrepreneurial Success Entrepreneurship Track Country: Sierra Leone Country: Tunisia Intervention and evaluation: In Sierra Leone, the Intervention and evaluation: Tunisia’s high rate of WLSME is supporting the expansion of an impact youth unemployment has caused significant social evaluation of the ongoing Youth Employment Support and political unrest. There is little evidence on Project. The project itself aims to increase short-term effective policies for transitioning young men and employment opportunities and provide a safety net women from education into jobs, particularly self- through public works. The project also improves employment. However, a recent evaluation of a new employability by building the capacity of young men entrepreneurship track in Tunisian universities — and women to start or grow their own firms. With the giving students the opportunity to graduate with a additional funds from the WLSME, an evaluation will business plan rather than a traditional thesis—shows be carried out to explore the differing impacts of that business training and personalized coaching have training, finance, and networks on men and women been effective in increasing the rate of self- entrepreneurs. The evaluation will also take into employment among graduates. Yet, this has proven consideration factors such as risk aversion, cognitive to be relatively more effective for men than women. and noncognitive skills, and psychosocial attributes. Identified constraints include lack of access to credit The evaluation design includes four treatment arms: and limited experience and opportunities. The (1) technical and basic business skills training only WLSME is supporting the piloting and evaluation of ("technical training package"), (2) microfinance (MF) additional entrepreneurship and business facilitation only, (3) technical training package plus development services, such as incubation and access MF, and (4) a control group. MF facilitation includes to credit, to improve the effectiveness of the business development, support for accessing MF, and entrepreneurship track for women. business clubs that provide the opportunity for peer networking. Implementation update: A follow-up survey for understanding the longer term impact of the Implementation update: A data collection firm has entrepreneurship track is underway and expected to been contracted and the evaluation is on track for be completed by December 2013. Qualitative work to baseline collection in the summer of 2013. better understand constraints faced by male and female graduates is complete and will be disseminated at a national workshop in the fall of 2013. The results will inform measures for strengthening the overall impact of the entrepreneurship track.The baseline survey is planned for fall 2013, with completion of the evaluation planned for 2014. Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 42 Egyptian Women’s Leadership in Micro and Small A New Generation of Women Entrepreneurs in Enterprises Pakistan Country: Arab Republic of Egypt Country: Pakistan Intervention and evaluation: The unemployment rate Intervention and evaluation: The recent report, Are for women in Egypt is twice that of men. In light of Women Entrepreneurs Being Served by the the need to create sustainable private sector jobs, the Microfinance Sector in Pakistan, sheds light on the World Bank’s Egypt Enhancing Access to Finance for extent to which women entrepreneurs are financially Micro and Small Enterprise Project works to increase excluded and why, and suggests how to reach women access to finance for small and medium enterprises, borrowers and entrepreneurs with appropriate targeting in particular underserved populations such financial services. WLSME funds are being used to as women and youth in Upper Egypt. Because female pilot mentoring and networking support for women entrepreneurs often face multiple obstacles, reducing entrepreneurs, as well as innovative financial the likelihood that they will benefit from the lines of products that avoid discriminatory practices in loan credit offered through the project, the WLSME is screening and processing. The pilot is part of a larger supporting the piloting and evaluation of targeted World Bank investment, Pushing the Frontier of support for women to increase their uptake of loans. Financial Inclusion in Pakistan. This includes addressing lower capacity, offering customized financial products because of their lack of Implementation update: The WLSME funding has traditional collateral, and improving the regulatory helped leverage additional funding from the Bank’s environment. Development Grant Facility. The design is in the early stages, exploring potential models such as the holistic Implementation update: The evaluation has been packages offered through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 designed and the baseline survey is being conducted. Women Initiative. Delays have occurred due to the country’s current political and social situation. 43 Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 44 45 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20016, USA www.worldbank.org/gender datatopics.worldbank.org/gender Gender Trust Funds: 2013 Annual Report 46